Ubaldo Jimenez: ‘You can’t go into your locker and cry’

Tonightâs 10-3 loss was the Rockiesâ fourth in a row and seventh in eight games, leaving them 13-24 since their major league-best 11-2 start. And thatâs just the cliff notes. Theyâve lost 12 out of 19 at Coors Field to fall to 12-14 in the confines formerly known as friendly.

The Cardinals piled up 19 hits, 12 off Ubaldo Jimenez, marking a career high. He allowed six runs in six innings as his personal dry spell reached 12 starts. Thatâs how long it has been since Jimenez had a win to call his own.

The loss dropped him to 0-5 with a 5.86 ERA, but thatâs just the beginning of the story. He has lost seven straight decisions since last September and is 4-12, 4.52 since his 15-1 start last season, when he started the All-Star Game.

It isnât possible, but itâs official: Jimenez, by all accounts the greatest pitcher in franchise history, will go into June winless.

âI donât even want to think about it,ââ Jimenez said. âItâs hard, especially after the kind of year I had last year. The only thing I can do is get ready for my next start. Iâm not going to be looking back and regretting and getting frustrated or anything like that.ââ

So much for Jimenezâs struggles. His misery has a lot of company in the Rockiesâ clubhouse. The Rockies had five hits with one out in the third inning and finished with âŚ you guessed it âŚ five hits. Fifteen consecutive Colorado hitters went down from the third inning into the eighth before Eduardo Sanchez ended the drought by plunking Carlos Gonzalez with a pitch.

âItâs really hard as a team,ââ said Jimenez. âThe only thing you can do is prepare for the next game. You canât, like, go into your locker and cry. You have to keep moving forward. We still have a long season. There are a lot of things we can do to turn this thing around.ââ

Said Chris Iannetta, when asked about the teamâs six-week funk: âIf it continues the rest of the year, then obviously it was something extremely tough. If we bounce back and turn things around, it was a rough spot that weâd like to forget about and did. So only time will tell.ââ

Other news ânâ notes from another day on the Rox beat:

*** Jim Tracy on the Rockiesâ six-week nosedive: âWeâre looking for some consistency from a group of players offensively. Thatâs the bottom line. Any discussion you engage in, it will come around to the fact that there are people in this lineup who are offensively more capable than what weâve seen to this point.ââ

*** Tracy on the front office making moves in the midst of the team-wide slump, including trading Franklin Morales and Felipe Paulino and designating Jose Lopez for assignment: ââŚ Thereâs a ton of baseball left to be played. And yet, some of the things we engaged in early on that havenât been working out. âŚ Weâre not going to keep sitting around and pretending like, âLetâs go along with this for another X amount of time.â ââ

*** Tonightâs game, the Rockiesâ 50th, marked the first time they had allowed 10 runs in a game.

*** The Rockiesâ struggles are reaching historic proportions. To wit: Theyâre 7-18 in May after finishing 17-8 in April. With four games remaining, theyâre in danger of losing 20 games in May. Nothing noteworthy there except that it has happened only three times in franchise history, twice in May: May 1993 (7-22), July 2000 (7-22) and May 2005 (9-20).

*** The Rockiesâ station-to-station ways continue. They didnât attempt a stolen base in the four-game series vs. Arizona, and didnât attempt one tonight. Theyâre 0-for-3 in stolen bases in their last 11 games.

*** Who knew? The Cardinals and Rockies have been competing since 1993 and each team has won 79 games in the series.

*** The Cardinals had the Rockies down 9-3 going into the ninth inning. For the record, the previous time the Rockies stared down that scenario, they rallied for nine runs last July 6th to win 12-3. This time they went down in order after Ty Wigginton was hit by a pitch.

Why is is when things are going great, the Rockies are “consistent”, but suddenlyÂ “inconsistent” when the Â going gets rough? This is to assume that they are better than they show. After 6 weeks, I would argue it is no longer a “slump” with “Inconsistencies”…
And when is Jim Tracy going to start leadingÂ this teamÂ again, instead of O’Dowd?

Mtfenn1 Marty

Knowledgeable baseball fans are not suprised by the Rockies slide. And the reasons have been around and not addressed for several seasons.Â This team is weak up the middle. They do not have a true every dayÂ major leage catcher, no RBI’s no real offensive punch. Â Contenders do notÂ hide their catcher in the 7-8 spot in the batting order. TheyÂ need a solid second baseman, a guy who can set the table by always being on base and who hits for average.Centerfield is proving to be a continued disappointment. Again little or no offensive punch or even minimal offensive contributions.Â Teams that consistently compete for the pennant are consistently strong up the middle. This teamÂ gets little or no production from 3rd base. Should be one of the teams big RBI positions.Â Â Really haven’t had a big time 3rd baseman since Vinny. The pitching was vastly over rated from the start. One great season does not make a great pitcher. The staffÂ shows potential, yes, but only afterÂ 2Â or 3 great seasons back to backÂ can you really say you have a great major league pitcher. Rockies haveÂ never hadÂ 2 great seasons back to backÂ from a pitcher. Lots of potential on the pitchingÂ staffÂ but also lots of maybe’s and kind sorta’s. This team can be fun to watch at times but I am begining to think what we have here is the Cubs of the west. Always gonna beÂ lots of coulda,Â shoulda, woulda and wait till next year.Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â MartyÂ

http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/WQWROT6PQP6HBHLKUSX4O4YWFA Mark

I noted with rolling eyes today’s online poll:

“The Rockies are facing a sinkhole at third base. Who will eventually earn the job for the Rockies?”

Gosh that’s a tough one.Â What the Rockies need to do is go out and get a slugging third baseman – say, one who’s averaged 28 HR and 94 RBI for every 600 major league at bats…Â Oh wait!Â They already have one.Â His name is Ian Stewart.Â His “disqualifying” problem is that he had one bad month, and the apparently brand-new-to-baseball Jim Tracy and Dan O’Dowd decided that none of his first 1200 major league at bats must have even happened.Â

What the Rockies really need is a brains injection in their front office.Â Then they need to start a remedial vocabulary course.Â First phrase to learn:Â “small sample size”.Â What could this phrase mean???Â Why does every other front office in baseball understand it, but we don’t?Â Is it rocket science perhaps?Â It must be.

Matt

This team flat sucks. No life. No energy. No will to win on any of the players faces. It’s disgusting.

Patrick, a third-generation Colorado native, is back for his second stint covering the Rockies. He first covered the team from 2005-2009, helping chronicle âRocktoberâ in 2007 and also following the teamâs playoff run in 2009.

Nick Groke has worked at The Denver Post since 1997, as a sports reporter, city reporter, entertainment writer and digital editor and producer, among other newsroom posts. He also writes regularly about boxing, soccer, MMA and NASCAR.